iPhone 6S to finally up its RAM

Ever since the iPhone 5, Apple has slotted 1GB of RAM inside the iPhone, but the iPhone 6S might feature a big upgrade to 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM in 2015.

TechNews.tw (Chinese) has confirmed with supply chain sources that Apple is preparing to upgrade the RAM inside the iPhone to 2GB, following two years of 1GB RAM.

Apple is reportedly working with Hynix, Samsung and Micron-Elpida in a 50/30/20 agreement to build the new component, but Micron-Elpida is running behind schedule.

Apple will most likely be updating its processing unit for the iPhone 6S as well, to the A9 chip. Not much is known about the A9 chipset, although some speed and graphical improvements are the norm for Apple APU updates.

Samsung will reportedly be the primary manufacturer for the A9 chipset, showing Apple has patched the wounds from two years of patent battles with the South Korean electronics giant.

LPDDR4 is the best-in-class for mobile RAM at the moment, featuring low-energy and double the bandwidth of predecessor LPDDR3. Apple has always focused on low-power in its components, pushing more hours on iPhone battery life.

Even though it is only 2GB of RAM, Apple has worked hard to make iOS 8 optimised for iPhones only, meaning it does not need as much power from components to run smoothly. Even so, most apps do not utilise the third or fourth gigabit of RAM anyway, making the upgrade to more gigabits pointless at the moment.

The launch of the iPhone 6S might come earlier than previously suggested, according to reports saying it will arrive at the same time as the Apple Watch. This would be the earliest iPhone release in recent memory, with Apple normally waiting until the second-half of the year, a few months after WWDC in June.